A relatively obscure Taito arcade game from 1989*, Fighting Hawk is a vertically-scrolling bullet hell shooter where you fly an A-10 ‘Tankbuster’ up the screen, fighting its way through waves of enemies and bosses.
Monthly Archives: July 2020
Narc, Commodore 64
A decent 1990 conversion of Williams Electronics‘ controversial coin-op, Narc, by Ocean Software.
Fantasy Zone, Arcade
Fantasy Zone is a colourful scrolling shooter from 1986. It was created by Sega and it looks simple and cartoony, but is in fact very challenging.
The main character, Opa-Opa, is sometimes referred to as “Sega‘s first mascot” and is very similar to the one seen in the earlier TwinBee. Both TwinBee and this game have been credited with the creation of the “cute ’em up” genre, and that is probably not too far from the truth.
Creatures II: Torture Trouble, Commodore 64
Creatures II: Torture Trouble is the sequel to the brilliant Creatures. It was again created by John and Steve Rowlands and published by Thalamus, this time in 1992.
Continue reading Creatures II: Torture Trouble, Commodore 64
Command & Conquer, PC
The classic Real-Time Strategy game, Command & Conquer, was originally published for PC MS-DOS by Virgin Interactive in 1995.
Command & Conquer was developed by Las Vegas-based company Westwood Studios and it took the world by storm…
Herzog, MSX
This obscure Japanese action game is a prototype of one of the first ever real-time strategy games – Herzog Zwei on the Sega Megadrive – and it is also one of the best games you can play on an MSX.
Herzog was developed and published on disk for the MSX2 by Techno Soft (nee, Tecno Soft) in 1988.
Stonkers, ZX Spectrum
This 1983 release from Imagine Software is one of the earliest examples of a Real-Time Strategy game ever made.
It might not look like much, but Stonkers is an important game, and designer/programmer John Gibson probably never even realised it at the time.
Utopia, Intellivision
Utopia is probably the first ever Real-Time Strategy game ever made. It was designed by Don Daglow and was published exclusively for the Intellivision by Mattel in 1981.
Monty Is Innocent, ZX Spectrum
Monty Is Innocent is an ‘anomaly’ in the famous Monty Mole series of games, from Gremlin Graphics.
Monty Is Innocent wasn’t designed or programmed by Pete Harrap, the original creator of Monty Mole, but by Chris Kerry (who pitched the idea to publisher Gremlin after having a hit with his game Jack and the Beanstalk). Gremlin liked the idea enough to green light the game and eventually release it as Monty is Innocent in 1985.
Giant’s Revenge, ZX Spectrum
Giant’s Revenge is the second sequel to Jack and the Beanstalk, which was created by Chris Kerry (with graphical assistance by his brother, Steve) and published by Thor Computer Software for the ZX Spectrum in 1984.
The King of Grabs 